Swirling Gale was flying back from a routine patrol of Equestria’s seafront. Wind drifted between her feathers as each powerful wing flap brought her forwards. This kind of patrol was redundant. Equestria hadn't had any real enemies in a thousand years and those it had wouldn't be stopped by three pegasi. Still, Swirling Gale loved her job as guard. Nowhere else could she get paid to fly around Equestria. Deep blues and light greens twisted beneath her. Any pegasus would notice everything on the ground when flying but Swirling preferred to let them be a blur so that a single memory could capture a whole flight.
Looking forward was worse. She flew with Private Blossom and Lieutenant Drift, each wore the golden suit of armour that, in the morning sun, shone like a laser determined to burn apart her eyes.
Scanning the ground below, nothing stood out to her. Everything was ordinary. As it always was. When it did come she almost missed it. Three letters spelt out on the coast. SOS.
“Lieutenant?” Swirling called out, “I found something.”
Instantly, the two pegasi stopped and hoovered beside her.
“Yes, Private?” Drift replied, “What did you see?”
She pointed downwards with a hoof. “Right there, looks like a sign.”
“SOS?” Blossom wondered, “what kind of message is that?”
“Maybe they didn't finish? Or some of it got washed away?”
“More likely it's an acronym,” Swirling pondered, “we could go check it out?”
The Lieutenant nodded his approval and the three pegasi descended to the ground. Steep dives turned into soft landings as the pegasi expertly touched down beside the message in the sand.
“Alright everypony,” the Lieutenant ordered, “let's get the area swept. Leave no stone unturned.”
“Sir?” Swirling called out, “I've found something.”
“What is it?” Drift flapped his way over.
“Some kind of message,” Swirling reported, “awful hoofwriting but it's legible.”
“Help. Moving… something… follow the…” Drift struggled to read.
“Most of the message has been destroyed,” Blossom analysed, poking his hoof at the tideline, “what kind of idiot writes something important in sand.”
“Maybe they're dying,” Swirling theorised, “would explain the poor decision making.”
“More likely they're stressed,” Drift countered, “no one half dead could haul this much wood. Must've been a unicorn at any rate; doing something like this by hoof would take hours.”
“‘Help’ is pretty clear though,” Swirling said, “we've got to send out a search party.”
“Guys, I found something,” Blossom gestured to a pile of objects. Metal boxes made up most of it, none of it looked remotely usable.
“Looks like a bunch of junk,” Drift assessed, “leave it here with everything else. We've got to go and report this.”
With the lieutenant's order, the three pegasi leapt back into the sky, ready to report the puzzle to their princess.
Morning broke across the endless treeline. Rough and jagged, sand made for a poor bed. Isabel lay there for a second, wings sprawled out across white sands and grit rubbed into her fur. Still felt strange to call it that, though every day it seemed more and more normal. But that could wait; it had to wait.
Forcing herself out of the sand, she shook the grit from her wings. Everyone else was still asleep, though each tossed and turned like a fish out of water. Another day of hiking would begin today but Isabel was again focused on mastering her knife work.
Carving better marks meant more chances of being found. More chances of being found meant a way home. Getting home… Well that's what all of them wanted wasn’t it?
Soon, the others began to wake. Each uttering their own curses towards the quality of the rest.
“Rough night too?” Oscar asked Aiden who was lying nearby.
“Worst night ever,” Aiden complained, “hardly slept. Kept waking up all the time. Stupid sand gets everywhere.”
“Same here,” Emma groaned, “never knew sand could be so hard.”
“I'd rather lay on knives,” Aiden added, “at least their cuts you can see.”
“Same,” Henry echoed, “can't stand rough nights; a few more of these and we'll be covered in bruises.”
“Fur’ll help,” Oscar played at false optimism, “but clearly not enough. I'm not sure I could stand another of these nights.”
Isabel thought it'd stop there but it didn't. There was back and forth about pointless sleep for half an hour or more. Infuriatingly wasteful. They didn't have forever and food was already a problem.
Fortunately, water hadn't been an issue. Inspecting the supplies, Isabel found every water bottle refilled. Hopefully they'd remembered to purify it.
If they rationed there might be a day's worth of food left between them. Two energy bars would hardly replace any energy they used walking but she could survive a while without food. Even if that meant staying in one place.
Eventually her friends gave up complaining about the sleep and began to worry about breakfast.
“How much stuff do we have?” Henry asked Isabel, “what can we spare?”
“We have two energy bars per person,” Isabel reported, “I say we eat one now and another tonight. Try and find some berries or something along the way for tomorrow?”
“Sounds good,” Henry grabbed one in his mouth. Granola bars were shockingly hard to open without hands. It took tearing at the edges for a few minutes before anyone could reach the edible part inside. Another reason to get better at using her knife, she would be able to open things like this for everyone. Imagining the ends of her wings were fingers didn’t really help so she had tried developing a new way of thinking about them. They weren’t fingers. Even if they were, she was beginning to forget what that meant anyway. If she weren’t so focused on their survival, she might have enjoyed being a pegasus. Whatever she’d felt last night when she was gliding was incredible. Going home meant giving that up. Maybe she shouldn’t-
What was she thinking? Of course she couldn’t stay here. She was a human not a pony. All of them needed to get home as quickly as possible. Before whatever was clouding her judgement could make her stay.
They set off once again in search of distant civilization. Tiresome and slow, the hike was much more difficult than yesterday. None of them had eaten or slept properly and all of them were hungry and tired. Isabel managed to spur them onwards, reassuring everyone when necessary.
Phoebe was by far the most prone to fear. Most of the group had been on overnight hikes before but this was Phoebe's first time. Isabel wished it could've gone differently. Phoebe didn't deserve this.
“You holding up alright?” Isabel asked, struggling to cut a mark into the tree beside her. It had gotten easier but that didn't mean it was easy. She'd need to remember to sharpen the knife when they next made camp.
Phoebe returned a weak smile.
“Come on, talk to me,” Isabel encouraged, “the hike gets boring without talking.”
“I'm fine,” Phoebe lied, “just hungry.”
“Of course,” Isabel smiled, “the second I get home I'm going to eat everything in my cupboard.”
“Same,” she laughed. It was good to see her laugh, everyone was beginning to suffer from the general depression that seemed to haunt their efforts.
“Come on, let's catch up,” Isabel beckoned her forwards. Isabel had hardly noticed them dropping behind the others. Now they were twenty metres or so back, it seemed abundantly obvious. Quickly and a little clumsily, the pair of ponies caught up with the others.
Swirling Gale hated giving reports. Benevolent as she was, the Princess remained terrifying. A being that could raise the sun could undoubtedly obliterate her instantly. It wouldn't even be a fight.
But she shouldn't have to worry about that. Princess Celestia wasn't evil. She loved her ponies like a mother loves her daughters.
Long and deep breaths helped with keeping calm. She finally knocked.
“Yes? Who is it?” A voice called out from inside.
Swirling walked into the room and kneeled before the alicorn. She began, “Princess Celestia, I have a report from the western coast.”
“What is it? Is there any danger?” She replied in that unwavering comforting tone that made one's nerves crawl in fear.
“No,” Swirling explained, “we found a sign. Some kind of distress call.”
“Did you search the area? What did you find?”
“A message half destroyed by the waves. Asked us to follow something and to help,” Swirling reported.
“I see,” Celestia kept her permanent smile, “are there any missing person reports from the nearby towns?”
“There isn't,” Swirling said, “the sign is recent. Patrols run on a daily schedule.”
“Then we'll send out a search party,” Celestia decided, “we can't leave ponies who need help.”
Swirling nodded.
“I'll have your troop reassigned to the search and send word to Princess Twilight,” Celestia explained, her voice wavering from comforting to frightened, “I hope the ponies are alright.”
“Absolutely Princess Celestia,” Swirling turned and left.
Walking was getting old. After hours of tortuous labour the friends were exhausted. Deep, blue and inexorably unstoppable, a river rushed before them. It was perhaps thirty metres wide and the current ripped through it so powerfully it made a sound like torn paper. An impassible blockade.
“River,” Aiden reported, “no chance of crossing. Even if we were strong swimmers it would be perilous but in these bodies it’d be suicide.”
“You’re right,” Henry sighed, “anyone up for building a raft?”
“Not here,” Isabel countered, “the current is too strong. We’ll be swept out to sea before we reach the other side. If we want to cross we’ll need to go upstream.”
“Maybe we should stop,” Aiden argued, “make camp here. Find some fish and make some traps and we’d be in great shape.”
“I’m not sure that’d work,” Isabel frowned, “the truth is, none of us are survival experts and we shouldn’t act like we are. Staying here will likely mean death.”
“You said yesterday that we could survive out here,” Emma, shocked by Isabel’s change of heart, commented, “were you just saying that to make me feel better?”
“We can survive out here for a while,” Isabel clarified, “but we need to get back home. If not because of water then because of food.”
“Hunting? Traps?” Aiden proposed, “if we work together we’re sure to survive.”
“How many of you can make traps with your hooves?” Isabel asked, “how many of you can even tie a knot?”
“You can?” Phoebe suggested, “I saw that crazy wing dexterity you’ve managed. A few more days and I’m sure you could tie a knot.”
“Maybe,” Isabel sighed, “but we don’t know. The wild is terrifying and dangerous and awfully brutal.”
No one said anything for a while after that. The initial morale that had propelled the team here was fading fast. “What if we keep going for two days?” Isabel suggested, “if we find nothing we’ll consider that attempt a failure and settle down somewhere. Survive what we can?”
It took a long time to think through that proposal but Henry eventually accepted. He addressed them, “We will continue moving until tomorrow night. If we haven’t found anything we’ll stop there. All of us. By then we should have a good idea as to whether Isabel’s dexterity will be adequate for survival. Emma should try doing the same thing. We’ll need as many people to do fine work as possible. Hopefully everyone can master movement by then. We’ll be in better shape in two days than we are now.”
Nodded agreement confirmed their plan of action. The expedition would continue inland to reach a place where they could cross the river.
As they ducked beneath the trees and continued up the river, a trio of pegasi scanned the beach from the sky.
And saw nothing.